Futurama’s John DiMaggio on his new IFC show and making Robert De Niro laugh

Welcome to Random Roles, wherein we talk to actors about the characters who defined their careers. The catch: They don’t know beforehand what roles we’ll ask them to talk about.

The actor: John DiMaggio got his start in stand-up before throwing caution to the wind and trying to make it as an actor. Although his efforts in front of the camera didn’t necessarily make him famous, his repeated requests for others to “bite my shiny metal ass” on Futurama made Bender an instant fan-favorite character and served as a turning point for DiMaggio’s career as a voice actor. Since then, he’s constantly bouncing between recording studios, maintaining recurring roles on several series at any given moment. In addition to Futurama, which returns to Comedy Central this summer, DiMaggio can currently be heard as part of the voice cast of IFC’s Out There.

Out There (2013-present)—“Wayne”John DiMaggio: This show is really a lot of fun. Ryan Quincy has done such a great job creating this atmosphere. This place, this time, this neighborhood, and these characters, everybody can relate to them. Wayne is the father character on the show, and he’s really this character where… You remember that dad that didn’t want their son following in their footsteps? Well, Wayne’s footsteps were through LSD-flavored gardens of Eden. So he doesn’t want his son going down the road of the hippie that he almost became. Now he’s an optometrist, he’s on the straight and narrow, and he just wants to make sure that his son— his family, really—is taken care of.

It’s an unusual role for me to play, because usually I’m playing such big, broad characters, and this one is so much more pulled back. It’s a lot more conservative. Sure, there’s wackiness in it, but it’s closer to my normal voice. So I think that’s what’s interesting about this role. But it’s a very funny show. And it’s stacked with talent. We were just talking about the cast list today, and there’s no other word for it: It’s stacked. We’ve got Ryan, who was on South Park for so many years; then Fred Armisen’s on the show, Kate Micucci’s great, Linda Cardellini, Megan Mullally. I’m all right. I hold my own. But it’s a fun show to do, I’m excited about it, and I’m happy to be talking about it. But any actor’s always thrilled to talk about a project, especially one that IFC’s really behind. Plus, being on with Portlandia can’t hurt. Not only is that show blowing up, but Fred’s on our show, too.

The A.V. Club: The content seems to be more or less grounded in reality, but to look at the character designs, the title’s definitely apropos.

JD: Yeah, there are a lot of stories based on Ryan’s life growing up in Nebraska. The show’s obviously not set in Nebraska. [Laughs.] But, by all means, it’s in that neighborhood where everybody goes, “Oh, I remember that guy.” It’s got something that everybody can relate to. There’s a familiarity to it, and Ryan’s done a really great job, along with the other people on the show, the producers and the writers, who’ve helped paint a picture on the show. And it’s fun when you get to play in that kind of an environment as an actor and get to do wacky—and sometimes not so wacky—voices.

I don’t usually get the honor of doing that kind of stuff. Usually I get to play the big, broad stuff. But this is a lot different. It’s just me, straightaway, but it’s a lot more conservative. He’s a guy who absolutely wants his kids taken care of, and that’s just it. Very conservative. But with a, uh, liberal past. [Laughs.]

Eddie (1996)—“Construction Worker”JD: Oh, God. That was one of the first jobs that I booked in New York after I was doing stand-up comedy. Or, rather, I was trying to get away from doing stand-up. I was still doing it, but I was fading out from that, and I was trying to get more acting stuff. It was post-Red Johnny And The Round Guy. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. I got to chat with Al Trautwig all day. Al Trautwig and… oh, my God, who was the other guy, from WWOR? I can’t remember his name, but he got into a yelling match with Mike Tyson a couple of years after that. Russ Salzberg! He was like, “Yeah, all right, Mike. Whatever.” It was awesome. [Laughs.] Anyway, these guys, they were all just sitting in the trailer, talking sports stories. It was so much fun. And I was living in the city at the time, and I had to walk all of four blocks to get the gig. Not a bad day. It was only one day. But it still runs, and I still get the occasional $3 check for it. Can’t complain about that.

Chicago Hope (1996-1997)—“Dr. Sean Underhill”JD: Ooooooooh. Dr. Sean Underhill, that was a big deal for me. I had stopped doing stand-up by that point, and I was trying to get into legitimate acting roles. That’s a scary thing to do, to completely abandon your moneymaker to go and do something else. Chicago Hope was, like, one of the big things I did. I’d booked a pilot that same year, the original Greg Giraldo pilot, and I, uh, got fired from it. [Laughs.] Best thing that ever happened to me! The show got canceled after one night. I had to come back out through Los Angeles, and I was auditioning after I parlayed a four-hour layover into a week. I had to go to Hawaii for a friend’s wedding, and I had to come back through L.A., so I stayed in Los Angeles for a week and booked that job while I was there, then went back to New York. I had to come out to L.A. once I got it. My relationship with my fiancée at the time was breaking up, so I was like, “Well, gotta start new!” That was 16 years ago, and that’s how I got out here. I wasn’t a doctor, but I played one on TV.

JD: Everybody’s got their war wounds and stuff like that, but my background definitely helped me get some chops up to that point. I think everybody has their own path, but that was fucking huge. [Laughs.] That was a big deal for me at the time. I think I said this last time, too, but, fuck it, I’ll tell it again: Dave Attell, who is just one of the funniest people on the planet, he had the joke, “Red Johnny is on Chicago Hope, and The Round Guy’s just hoping to get to Chicago.” It was all around the comedy circuit at the time. It was awesome.

JD: My very first…? It was in college. We were raising money to go to Scotland to do The Fringe Festival, and I had to do a PSA for New York Public Radio for some state program. It just paid straight scale, and I had to donate the money directly to the student company that we were raising the money for. But that was my first job. I certainly didn’t have an agent or anything. I was basically just cheap labor. It was, like, “Here, just do this thing and donate the money. It’ll help us out.” [In a high-pitched voice.] “Sure, Coach, anything for the team!” The first one I booked with an agent, though, was a Toyota radio ad. And it was also the first audition I ever went on, so I came out swinging. At one point in my career, I was one for one. I was batting a thousand, baby!

AVC: Didn’t you do some voice work early on for the English versions of a few Japanese animated films, the most notable of which was Princess Mononoke?

JD: Oh, Princess Mononoke, that was really cool. I got to work with Jack Fletcher, a really wonderful voice director who I unfortunately never got to interview for the documentary I’m working on right now called I Know That Voice. Jack was one of the guys I started working with the earliest in L.A. We did Spawn together, with Todd McFarlane. But Princess Mononoke was really cool, because you had to work backward on that gig. You had to match the mouth flaps. [Laughs.] It’s anime, and it’s originally animated with a Japanese voice, so we had to all kinds of stuff. And I actually played a bunch of different characters in that, which was also a lot of fun. Getting the opportunity to show your range in one particular project… that’s always a huge deal. For example, Maurice LaMarche, the last Emmy he won [for Futurama], he did six of the voices in the episode. It was, like, the one time that all of the characters that he does were in the same episode. When that kind of thing happens, it’s like you’re putting on a clinic.

Samurai Jack (2001-2003)—“The Scotsman”JD: The Scotsman was fun! Genndy [Tartakovsky] brought me in, and I read for it and jumped around while I did it. I had no idea what it was gonna look like and how much of a big deal it was gonna be until they aired it. [Laughs.] I wasn’t hip to Samurai Jack until I saw it, but then I was all, “This show is awesome!” That was also one of the first gigs that I remember with Kevin Michael Richardson, who was just so funny. He’s just a powerhouse, that guy. I love Kevin Michael Richardson. He’s my brother from another mother. He’s awesome.

I remember the complete goofiness of the crazy gibberish characters. It was just perfect. That stylized stuff, the whole thing with Mako [Iwamatsu, voice of Aku] was just so awesome. I loved doing that job. And to get called back a couple more times to be recurring was great. It was always so much fun. Every gig was even more fun than the last. If a show is good, that’s usually the case when you go in: The next time it’s better, and it always gets better and better.

Adventure Time (2010-present)—“Jake”JD: Man, Adventure Time… I had no idea of the power that show has. To this day, I’m still in the dark about some of the stuff about that show. But that helps me, actually, because it makes it that much more of a leap of faith to do it. Pendleton Ward, he’s a really great guy, and he’s got this show that’s just a juggernaut. Jake the Dog is kind of like my normal voice, but [Jake voice] he’s a little played up. He’s kind of like, “Hey, dude, you’ve gotta do this, you’ve gotta do that. Hey, man, I don’t think that’s cool. Hey, the Ice King stinks!” And the characters, like Princess Bubblegum and Lumpy Space Princess, I mean, it’s just so ridiculous. The world that he creates is just crazy. Tom Kenny said it best when he said it was this generation’s Yellow Submarine. And I really believe that.

Father Of The Pride (2004)—“The Snout Brothers”/“Rabbits Gary and Lamont”/“Tom the Antelope”JD: Oh, boy, Father Of The Pride. I did a couple of characters on that, right? I did one of the warthogs, I know that much. That was a lot of fun. That show was supposed to be so much bigger than it was, but it didn’t hit, and I think the problem was that the animation was too expensive at the time.

AVC: Well, that and Roy of Siegfried & Roy was mauled by one of his white tigers before the show premièred.

JD: Yeah, that’s the other thing. [Laughs.] Oh, my God, that’s right.

AVC: Could you hear the weeping coming from DreamWorks?

JD: Can you imagine? All the blood, sweat, tears spent on that show went right out the window. And talk about a cast. It was ridiculous. Carl Reiner? I got to be in the studio with him for a little bit. That was the coolest thing ever. It’s, like, with this gig, you get to be in the room with the people that just blow you away. You’re like, “Is this really happening?” Carl fucking Reiner, man. And Bea Arthur. Maude, for Christ’s sake. All these different people that you get to meet, from all walks of the entertainment industry. That’s one of the reasons working in animation is so great.

The Penguins Of Madagascar (2008-2012)—“Rico”AVC: Have you got a favorite project that you’ve worked on over the years that didn’t get the love you thought it deserved?

JD: Huh. That’s an interesting question. You know what? Not to sound schlocky, but I really hope that Out There is able to do well. Right now, IFC’s definitely giving it the love it deserves, but I just hope people respond to it like we want them to. Everything else, though… What are you gonna do? I was hoping that Penguins Of Madagascar could stay around for much longer. But Nickelodeon said, “Nah, we’re good.” It’s, like, what, 82 [episodes] is the new 100? But that’s all right.

Jackie Chan Adventures (2001-2005)—“Hak Foo”JD: God, that’s an old gig. That was one of those gigs when I first started out, where I was like, “Okay, that’s cool, I’d do whatever.” That was kind of a schlocky thing, but I’ve since worked with people from that show on other stuff. It was what it was. It was Jackie Chan Adventures. It was never gonna win a Nobel Prize or anything like that. But it was a fun gig. I got to scream and yell. It was good if it was at the end of the week, though, because you needed the weekend to recover from screaming at the top of your lungs.

Any voice where you’ve got to scream over a battle or whatever, that’s always difficult. It’s harder than it seems. People are like, “Oh, you’re just talking.” Uh, no, you’re not. You’re saying the same thing over and over again, and each time you’ve got to say it like it’s the first time you’re saying it. That’s why videogames are sometimes difficult. You’ve got to go over so much stuff, from prompts to reactions to dialogue, and it’s multiple takes so there’s a sound library for your character, so that your character can do whatever the player wants you to. Any time you’re pushing the limits of your voice, you want to be working with a director who’s sensitive to that, because there’s a limitation to how much you can do that. It’s like, “I’ll give you what you want, but we’re only going to be able to do one or two takes of these lines!” If there’s 40 or 50 lines of dialogue in a particular show, I’m not gonna last! [Laughs.] It’s tough to keep that strength up. But as long as you’re prepared, as long as you warm up, as long as you keep your tools lubricated and ready to rock, you can overcome it. Days that are challenging, you just hope they’re at the end of the week so you can get that recovery time, and you can just get back on the horse.

AVC: One of the big takeaways from the Random Roles with Phil Lamarr was that he did three seasons of Mr. T’s animated series without ever meeting Mr. T. Did you ever get to meet Jackie Chan?

JD: No! Never did. Only met the guy who did his voice [James Sie].

AVC: Surely you’re not suggesting that Jackie Chan did not do the voice of Jackie Chan in Jackie Chan Adventures.

JD: He did not. But he did the PSAs at the end of the show. They’d show him saying something like [Jackie Chan impression] “Hey, kids! You do this! Don’t do that!” Done, out of there. Nah, he didn’t do the voice. Are you kidding? There’s no way Jackie Chan’s coming in to do that. Besides those PSAs, you know he was just like, “Here’s my name, now where’s my check?” And he got plenty of checks out of that.

Wreck-It Ralph (2012)—“Beard Papa”JD: Oh my God, do you know that there’s a Beard Papa in Pasadena? I was driving down the street, and I think it’s on Lake Avenue? I didn’t even know it, but there’s a fucking Beard Papa right in Pasadena! Rich Moore called me in for that role. Rich Moore, director of Wreck-It Ralph, who also directed Futurama and worked at Rough Draft for a long time. He was at Disney, and he brought me in and said, “I’ve got this character, it’s one line, but people are gonna be like, ‘Hey, Beard Papa, man!’” So I’m like, “All right, whatever, dude.” But, sure enough, people have been going [Screams] “BEARD PAPA, BRO!”

It’s the weirdest thing. It was one line! But it’s great. That’s the beauty of being in the business as long as I have: People just call you up after a while and go, “Just come in. You come in, we’ll play for an hour and a half, and we’ll be fine.” This was, like, a half-hour or something like that. It was nothing. It was awesome. I love that. It was just, like, “Hey, dude! What’s up, man? All right, sure, I’ll have a danish and coffee! What are we doing? All right, great!” [Snaps fingers.] “All right, done!” It’s, like, 10 takes or whatever, and you’re out.

The Haunted World Of El Superbeasto (2009)—“Burt the Spurt”JD: [Hesitates.] I remember that, but I never really got to see that. I remember doing it, though, and it was a really outlandish, crazy character, and so over the top and vulgar and ridiculous. But, c’mon, it’s fucking Rob Zombie, for chrissakes. What are you gonna do? It’s so out there… hey, speaking of Out There…

AVC: Really?

JD: All right, all right. [Laughs.] But, seriously, El Superbeasto was really nuts. I remember seeing the drawings and just being like, “Jesus, this is gonna be weird.” But I’ve always liked that stuff. I always like adult-themed cartoons. You know, like Out There. Hello! [Pumps his fist in the air, starts singing.] Bringing it back around… aw, yeah!

Kim Possible (2002-2007)—“Dr. Drakken”JD: That was so much fun. That was me working out all my Harvey Korman demons. [Laughs.] That was one of the greatest jobs ever. The same guys who did that show did Penguins Of Madagascar. Bob Schooley and Mark McCorkle. Those guys are franchise guys. Whatever they touch turns to gold. Working with them was a charm. And with Lisa Schaffer, who was the voice director for both those shows, actually.

Fish Hooks (2010-2011)—“Jocktopus”Gravity Falls(2012-present)—“Manly Dan”JD: Oh, my God, Gravity Falls. That show’s really funny. And Manly Dan is just one of those boisterous voices. It’s just a lot of fun to do. Man, I’m really fortunate that I get to play like I do. That’s the kind of role where you just get to screw around, you come in and do a bunch of screaming and yelling for this over-the-top character. That’s the beauty of voiceover: You get to make these characters that are cartoonish yet so believable within that environment. Anywhere else, it wouldn’t work. But in that, it does.

AVC: Is Manly Dan another character where you have to record it on the weekend?

JD: Not as much, because there’s not usually a lot of stuff for him. Manly Dan’s more of a “I’m here! And now I’m not!” He’s in, he’s out. But that show’s nuts. Big following. And Fish Hooks, too. That’s pretty ridiculous.

AVC: The king of cult series, that’s you.

JD: Yeah, but I’m psyched about that, man! I can do conventions for the rest of my life! Hooray! [Laughs.] If it all goes downhill, I can still show up at conventions.

Little Fockers(2010)—“EMT”JD: You know what? That was awesome. I got to be with De Niro all day! I was doing, like, Paul Lynde impressions, I was doing all sorts of shtick, and he was laughing. He [was] strapped up in this gurney, and we had to carry him across this lawn, and a gurney on a lawn is fucking treacherous, man! So I was the one who was, like, controlling the gurney, and they’re like, “Dude, you have to make sure that Mr. De Niro is all right.” And I was like, “Uh, all right, I’ve got it, no problem!”

There was this one take where they were doing my close-up, and we’d done the scene a couple of times, and it was fine, I was already kind of cracking him up a little bit. And I’d done my Larry Hagman impression for Ben Stiller. Somehow we got talking about Larry Hagman, and I said, “Oh, I do a little bit of Larry Hagman.” He was like, “Really?” I said, “Yeah, I do a little bit.” [In a perfect Larry Hagman voice.] “Jeannie? Jeannie…? Jeannie! Jeannie!” That’s it. [Laughs.] That’s all it is. It’s just fucking “Jeannie.” But it’s him! He laughed at that. But I’m just kind of trying to work the crowd. Meanwhile, I’m freaking out, ’cause it’s De Niro!

So the camera’s on me for this take, we do the scene, and I fuck it up. And I was just like, “Sorry! Sorry! I’ll get it! I screwed it up. That’s was my fault. Can we do it again?” So we do it again, and I stroked it. I nailed it. Just sent it out of the park. Direct shot, boom, done, covered. As soon as the director went, “Aaaaaaannnd… cut,” De Niro looked at me and went, [DeNiro impression] “That was good. That was good. That was good, you.” I fucking burst out in laughter. De Niro nailed me. It was a comedy punch to the gut. It was perfect. And I felt so redeemed that I was on the same page as Robert De Niro. As Bobby D. Bobby D!

I Know That Voice (2013) —himself, executive producerJD: Speaking of De Niro, I’m trying to get into the Tribeca Film Festival with I Know That Voice. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. We’re gonna have a little screening for some of the people that we know in Hollywood, a couple of agents, a couple of our peers, people that we work with, some of the people that are in it. We wanna get everybody’s feedback, then we’re gonna do one final edit, lock it in, and hopefully it’ll be done in time. We’re on schedule, though. We had a good friend of mine, Jeff Austin of the Yonder Mountain String Band, a really good bluegrass band out of Colorado, do a theme song for it. But we’ve got it down to about 80 minutes, and hopefully we’ll be able to get into Tribeca with it. That’d be wonderful. It’s pretty exciting.

AVC: Who are the crown jewels of the interviews you’ve gotten for the film?

AVC: You couldn’t even get Welker to appear couched in shadows or something?

JD: Nah. I asked Frank, but he was just like, “No, I don’t really feel like talking about it.” And I get it. That’s just how he is. But the beautiful thing is that he really is that humble. And Tress was just like, “I don’t wanna sit there and talk and blow smoke up my own ass.” I’m like, “C’mon, Tress…” “No. I have no interest in doing that.” I was gonna have her do voiceover stuff for the film, like, “And, now, here’s this!” She even agreed to it, too, but we never were able to hook it up. It’s all right. I’ll still thank both of ’em in the credits, anyway. [Laughs.]

But those are the people that we didn’t get. We did get footage of Mel [Blanc] from his son, Noel, and we got permission to use it, so that’s cool. June Foray’s in it. And so are Billy West, Maurice LaMarche, Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Tara Strong, Grey DeLisle, Phil Lamarr, Rob Paulsen… God, who else? Everybody that I’ve worked with. It’s crazy. Gary Anthony Williams, Cedric Yarbrough, Kari Wahlgren, Andrea Romano… just a who’s-who of voiceover people.

AVC: What made you want to tackle a project like this? It’s not like you’re coming from a background in documentary filmmaking.

JD: A good friend of mine—Larry Shapiro—and I were, we were in Amsterdam talking about a project that we wanted to do. We’d done a bunch of stuff together at the Jam in the ’Dam, which is how I met all the guys in the Yonder Mountain String Band. It’s a festival of jam bands that they do in Amsterdam every year.

AVC: Well, what better place to have a jam-band festival than Amsterdam?

JD: [Cackles.] Aw, man… It was so awesome. Les Claypool was doing stuff, Umphrey’s McGee and all those bands were there. But Larry Shapiro said, “Let’s do something,” and we decided we would, but we didn’t really have anything concrete going. But then my friend Tommy Reid, who I’ve worked with a lot, was like, “Dude, I wanna work with you, too. I wanna produce stuff.” I told him about the idea Larry and I had for this documentary, and he was like, “That’s a great idea!” That was in October of 2011, so we’ve been working on it a long time. But now we’re in the final stage of getting this thing together, and all I want to do is make the money back that I put into it. That’s it. But I think it’s gonna be bigger than that. Everybody else has been saying that, too. I just hope it has a grassroots kind of appreciation. I don’t care if appears in theaters. I just want people to see it, however they see it.

Futurama (1999-present)—“Bender”/“URL”/“Randy”/numerous other charactersAVC: Was there a specific role that signaled for you that you’d made the transition to being a full-time voice actor?

JD: Futurama was a big deal. People had already started to hear about me a little bit here and there, but that was the first series I booked to be a regular on. I did a bunch of other things, and I was definitely getting into the loop. You have to get your foot in that door. There’s a certain community of actors that usually do a lot of the stuff. And I got my foot in that door, but I’d say Futurama definitely broke that door down.

AVC: We talked before about the evolution of Bender’s voice as the show progressed, but did it change because someone asked you to change it?

JD: I kind of had the voice when I first started. When they described the character to me, I said, “Oh, okay, how about this?” And I did the Bender voice, and they said, “Wow, that’s really something. It’s just punch-drunk enough that it’ll work!” Matt Groening was really excited when he heard the voice. He was like, “That’s the one! I had no idea that that was it, but that’s it!” They went through a lot of people to figure out what that voice should be, and luckily I came out swinging and got it.

The same people that cast Futurama cast MADtv, and I auditioned for MADtv, and I got it. But I turned it down because my agent and my manager at the time were like, “That is a really bad deal.” So I was like, “Well, okay…” So I turned that down and I got Futurama, which, as it turned out, was a pretty awesome decision. There you go: little known trivia of John DiMaggio. [Johnny Carson impression] “Weird, wild stuff. Also on tonight’s show…? Ted Nugent is here. ‘Cat Scratch Fever.’ Ed, you ever had Cat Scratch Fever?” [Ed McMahon impression] “I was scratched by a kitten once in the third grade…” [Laughs.] Sorry.

AVC: You, sir, are a man who enjoys riffing.

JD: Little bit. [Laughs.] What the hell was I talking about? Oh, right, Bender. But what else can you say about Bender that hasn’t already been said? [Bender voice] “How do I love Bender? Let me count the ways, baby!” I’ve been blessed with a job that’s gonna be with me forever. To be able to play that role has opened up so many doors for me. People don’t really know what I look like. That’s the whole thing about I Know That Voice. It’s not like, “Hey, look at us,” but more like, “Hey! Hi. We’re those guys. Just so you know.” You know what I mean? And [Futurama]… it’s just really something how huge it is. I was just in Australia, and people were freaking out. Like, the copilot of the plane was going, “My kids are gonna freak out when they find out about this. That’s one of the shows we watch together.” It’s nuts.

JD: I love URL, and I love Randy. [Randy voice] Randy’s so wonderful! “Oh, my God, that’s gross!” He’s that guy in the crowd. When that first came up, that’s all he was. They said, “We want you to do this part.” I said, “Okay.” They said, “He’s a man in the crowd.” I said, “All right.” There’s always that one guy who says, “This is baloney! I throw a red flag on this!” There’s always that guy. When they drew him—I didn’t see the drawing before I did the voice—he was this old guy who looked like he ought to have your standard old-guy voice, but I was like, “No!” When I did the voice, they were like, “Oh, this is wonderful!” And they put him in a pink outfit, and they added all these hand motions, and it’s just blossomed into this great, ridiculous secondary character who always manages to show up and be just, like, “Hiiiiiiii!” But URL is a badass dude. [URL voice] “You’re under arrest, baby.”

Futurama’s just been awesome. Hopefully we can just keep doing it. Hopefully it’ll just keep coming back. I mean, it’s television, so anything could happen. But the good thing is… Now I’m on another show called Out There. [In a smarmy announcer voice] Hi, how ya doin’? Out There, on IFC. It’s gonna be great. IFC: always on, slightly off.

AVC: What kind of a bonus do you get for bringing it back to Out There to wrap up?

JD: I’m not telling you. You are out of the loop on this one, sir. [Laughs.]